SCA: The Køstrup Dress (Part I: Tablet Weaving)

For my next A&S piece, I've decided to create my own version of a dress I've admired for a long time: the "Køstrup  dress" - the one that's pleated in the front.  I've done one before, but I wasn't terribly happy with the way it turned out - the fabric was the wrong type, and I didn't like the way I did the trim at the top of the dress.  So I'm starting from scratch and making a new one this time around. 

Charlotte Rimstad, 1988

The original band from grave ACQ was originally assumed to be a brocaded weave, but that might not be true.  There's some experimental evidence that it might actually a soumak design, which is a bit different.  In brocade tablet weaving, the thread for the brocaded design is passed through the warp above the band from side to side, which creates a flat design on top of the woven band.  In soumak, the decorative thread is passed on a needle up from underneath the warp, around the warp threads, and back down to the bottom, which creates a little “bump” on top of the warp, and then the design on top of the band is created by the arrangement of these little bumps.  It was tricky to learn, and while it ended up being easy to do, it was a very, very slow process. 

Beginning the process

A note about the fiber content:  the warp and the soumak design on the original band was made of wool.  Since I was substituting my fabric – using linen instead of wool – I also decided to substitute my weaving threads and used cotton weaving thread instead of wool.  I did this for two reasons: I did not have any wool thread thin enough for this project on hand, and also because I wanted to be able to run this dress through the washing machine if it needed it, and cotton weaving holds up fairly well in the machine if you’re careful with it. 

Also, about the colors:  the original band was made of dark blue wool, but we don’t know what colors the designs on top were, because a detailed color analysis has not been done on every part of the band.  So, I just chose colors that I thought looked nice with the blue background (red, light blue, green, and yellow).   

I wove this band on an inkle loom, because that’s easiest for me to manage.  I also made a slight change to the band when I warped it up. According to the instructions I used (this, from Etsy seller Alija Mega), and other sources (Shelagh Lewins, Peter Collingwood), the original band from ACQ was done with a 2-hole warp, where two threads are passed through the tablets instead of the usual four. 

I opted instead to make the background weave a 4-hole warp instead of a 2-hole warp.  I did this for two reasons:  (1) Mega says in her instruction booklet that you can do it either way, but that the 2-hole warp makes for a lighter, more flexible band in the end. Since this band is attached to the dress only at its ends (as opposed to sewing the band to the fabric of the dress along its long edge), I actually wanted a sturdier, less flexible band, so that it would stay in place.  Also, (2), I find 2-hole warp to be ridiculously difficult to manage, and since I was trying a new technique to begin with, I didn't want to compound the potential for error and frustration by ALSO using a warping technique I know I already hate doing.  So, for sanity's sake, and also ease of wear, I chose to use a 4-hole warp on this project.  

So, I needed a band about 9” long to go across the front of my dress.  I wove about 2" of plain unadorned blue at the beginning and end of  7" of pattern, so that I would have a plain end to wrap around the loops on the dress.  I did this twice, in fact - I made a band of about 23", including the blue end sections, and cut it in half:  one end to use on the dress, and the other end to place on my display table so that people could pick it up and examine it more closely than they could examine it on the completed dress.  

Finished band(s)

 

This band is going to be attached to the dress by wrapping the excess at either end of the band around the loops on the front of the dress and sewing them in place.  The band is NOT sewn to the top of the dress along its length, it’s only attached at the ends (see Charlotte Rimstad’s drawing, first picture above). 

Weaving in the ends

The back of the band appears quite messy, with the threads passing back and forth all over the place, and loose ends hanging out. In the end I took a small tapestry needle and wove the loose ends into the back of the band to secure them and cut the excess off flush with the band so that they wouldn't show on the dress. 

I’m really pleased with the way the finished product came out.  It was tricky at first, and tedious, but the soumak method was pretty simple once I got the hang of it, and I’m glad I decided to try to learn how to do this. It was ridiculously slow compared to regular tablet weaving - this 23” long piece took me just under five and a half hours to make. 

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I'm busy sewing the dress itself right now, so the next post will be about that.  More soon!